50 Years Ago
San Rafael High School students are running an Alcatraz Supply Depot that is temporarily receiving donations from Marin County residents responding to the needs of the Indians of All Tribes on Alcatraz.
In a recent attempt to organize county-wide action to assist the Indians, the students acquired the free use of a nearby vacant store through the generosity of the owner’s son, attorney Fred Robbins Jr., until March 16. Local groups such as the Marin Ecology Center and Switchboard of Marin have been accumulating supplies.
—Uncredited, 3/4/70
40 Years Ago
Two years ago somebody at NBC-TV stumbled across a copy of The Serial, then raced out here to produce a special on how Marin consisted mainly of hedonists in hot tubs. I got all cranked up and produced an issue of the Sun which documented NBC’s journalistic blunders. The National News Council agreed, dinging NBC with the only censure of an entire show in the council’s history.
…The whole episode is about to be repeated – Paramount will soon unveil its off-the-wall version of The Serial. This time I’m not so sure I’ll be so cranked up. I’m frankly astonished at how the country’s leaders are responding to the energy crisis like so many rabbits caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.
…When The Serial comes to the silver screen, and Tuesday Weld and Martin Mull make us look like a bunch of self-indulgent jerks…who’s going to argue with them?
— Steve McNamara, 2/29/80
30 Years Ago
Now that the Communist military threat has ended, most Americans want Washington to shift spending for atomic weapons development to such important national problems as our crumbling transportation system, homelessness, and the poisoned environment, among others.
As individuals we have contacted officials at every level to express this feeling, but our individual voices seem to have little impact compared to the campaign contributions, and bribery, by nuclear weapons producers seeking to continue lucrative contracts. How else can one explain why George Bush persists in saying that we should not expect any significant military cuts, or why Pete Wilson and Alan Cranston continue to support spending billions of dollars for Stealth bomber production, or why Barbra Boxer has come out in support of the new Midgetman missile?
—William Rothman, 2/2/90
20 Years Ago
More and more young women are developing eating disorders, and at an earlier age than ever before. The Harvard Eating Disorders Center reports that about half of the 9- to 15-year-old girls in one study were on some sort of weight-loss regimen. Five percent used diet pills or laxatives. Elizabeth Scott, a psychotherapist who has pioneered an eating disorders prevention program in the Marin County schools, believes the problem has become epidemic. “We asked a circle of girls [at a drop-in group at Tamalpais High School], how did they feel when they’re full?” Says Scott. “And what a lot of complicated feelings I’ve heard about! Everything from, ‘I feel guilty’ to ‘I feel like a slut.’ Unbelievable! [They think] feeding yourself is greedy and selfish and you don’t deserve it. That’s your average freshman at Tam High.”
—Jill Kramer, 3/1/00
—Compiled by Alex T. Randolph
